Graham is honored in his home town The Layman Online, from news sources Thursday, December 2, 1999 CHARLOTTE – Evangelist Billy Graham, 81, was a prophet honored in his home town this week. A record turnout of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce attended a program in which Graham was presented the Chamber's Citizen of the Carolinas Award. Graham, making his first public appearance in Charlotte since his 1996 crusade at Ericsson Stadium, assured his long-time friends and supporters that he he's the same person who sold "Fuller brushes as a lanky teen-ager in the Carolinas.'' Only now, he added, "I'm trying to sell people on the idea of coming to know Christ." It was a clearly older, more fragile Graham, though, who was making his first public appearance in Charlotte since his 1996 crusade at Ericsson Stadium drew 336,100. "He recently bruised his ribs in a fall," The Charlotte Observer reported. "He struggles with the shaking hands and shuffling gait that come with Parkinson's disease. Doctors must drain water from his brain. Charlotte businessman Graeme Keith, a longtime family friend, had to help him up the stairs to the stage for his 10-minute appearance." While he makes fewer visits to his home town, Graham still maintains a relationship with a Charlotte seminary. He is chairman emeritus of the Gordon-Conwell Thelogical Seminary in Charlotte, a growing evangelical institution that recently announced the addition of a doctoral degree in counseling. Graham wore a new dark suit to the Charlotte event and said it was the one he thought he might be buried in. Whenever that day comes, he said to a crowd grown suddenly quiet, he'll be ready, The Observer reported. "My destination, I believe, is certain," Graham said. "It's heaven. I'm going to heaven and that's where I'll be, a few years from now, a few months from now."

Respond to this article

Home · News · PLC Publications · The Presbyterian Layman Online Reviews · Archives · History of the Lay Committee · Feedback · Links